Hanukkah Unbound

The Olympic torch relay is one of the most celebrated of international spectacles. Kindled in Greece, the torch is borne by runners around the world, ultimately ending up at the host city for the games, where it is used to bring the Olympic flame into being. The torch is seen as a link between ages ancient and modern, between Olympia and the Olympic stadium, a drama spectacularly staged and internationally embraced. And it was entirely the invention of the Nazis, created as a means of linking ancient Greece to Germany's Aryan identity, and to celebrate the dawn of the Third Reich.